International Law

Service via Facebook

In July this year I blogged about a decision of Queensland District Court Judge Ryrie in Citigroup Pty Ltd v Weerakoon [2008] QDC 174 that service could not occur via Facebook:

An alternative was requested in the amended application in order that a sealed copy of the claim might be emailed to the defendant's  - what is described as "Facebook page" on the web.  I am not so satisfied in light of looking at the - the uncertainty of Facebook pages, the facts that anyone can create an identity that could mimic the true person's identity and indeed some of the information that is provided there does not show me with any real force that the person who created the Facebook page might indeed be the defendant, even though practically speaking it may well indeed be the person who is the defendant.   

At this stage, however, I am not inclined to make the alternative order being sought in the amended application.  However, I am prepared on the material I have got to order substituted service, as I have stated.

I concluded that this seemed like the right conclusion, adding that I was "sure that the day will come when service can occur via Facebook or other similar social networking sites".  According to a report in today's Sydney Morning Herald, this has occurred a little earlier than I perhaps expected:

The big question about Facebook is does it have any valuable commercial application? Well it seems that the courts have found one.

Today in what appears to be a first in Australia and perhaps the world, Master Harper of the ACT Supreme Court ordered that a default judgement could be served on defendants by notification on Facebook.

A default judgement is given by the court where the defendant does not appear in court to defend the case. Once the plaintiff has been awarded the default judgement by the court, the plaintiff must then locate the defendant and serve the judgement on them.

Usually this is done by way of personal service or the mailing of the judgement to the defendant's home. However, service can be difficult where the defendant is not easily located.

Courts do allow service by way of email and in the recent Sonny Bill Williams and NRL matter, the court made an order for "substituted service" by allowing certain court documents to be served on Sonny Bill by text message to his mobile phone. But Facebook is a new one.

Master Harper ordered that the defendants in the case could be validly served by the plaintiff sending a message by computer to the Facebook pages of both defendants informing them of the entry of and the terms of the judgement.

Australian courts are regarded as being amongst the most technologically advanced in the world, and this innovation goes to further that claim.

Read more here.

Full post as published by Freedom to Differ on December 12, 2008 (boomark / email).